Many manufactured commodities are transported or sold in boxes or other containers which have a removable lid. In order to avoid the necessity of having a human labor force fill the boxes and apply lids thereto there have been many developments of apparatus and systems which will perform the operations mechanically without the help of humans. In some instances the goods as sold to the consumer are packaged in such a box in other instances many individual units are packaged together in a carton for transportation from the manufacturer to the distributor and on to the retailer. In more recent times there have been developments in which reusable cartons are employed to transfer goods from the manufacturer to the distributor and on to the retainer, and thereby eliminating the waste involved in employing a cardboard carton which is used one time only. These more modern cartons are frequently called "tote boxes" and are made of plastic materials which are light in weight and yet strong enough to carry substantial loads. These tote boxes can be used in a few standard sizes (e.g. 1-3 ft. wide.times.2-4 ft. long.times.0.5-1.5 ft. deep) to carry any of hundreds or thousands of varieties of products from the manufacturer or distributor to the retailer or from a large inventory of items which are stored temporarily by the retailer and carried in tote boxes from the storage supply to the shelves of the retailer's store for ultimate sale to the consumer. In normal use the tote box is fitted with a lid after the box is filled with the necessary items so that filled boxes can be stacked on top of each other for storage or transportation.
In the prior art there have been many developments wherein a series of open top bottles is passed continuously through a station where caps are applied. Similarly there are systems to apply lids to small (5-10 oz.) plastic tubs such as those used for oleomargarine, cottage cheese, etc. These containers and lids are relatively small and easy to handle. In contrast, the tote boxes, to which this invention is particularly directed, are large in volume and weight, and they present entirely different handling problems than the small bottles and tubs mentioned above.
It is an object of this invention to provide a system for continuously applying lids to open top tote boxes moving continuously through a lidding station.
It is another object of this invention to position and to press into place a rectangular lid with depending flanges to a rectangular open top box while being transported on a continuously moving conveyor.
Still other objects will become apparent from the more detailed description of this invention which follows.